Poster Presentation
Thursday, 20 July 2006
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Thursday, 20 July 2006
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Patient Autonomy and End-of-Life Care in Taiwanese Adults
Lee-jen W. Suen, Department of Nursing, Chung Jung University, Tainan, Taiwan
| Learning Objective #1: know more about death related issues in Taiwanese culture |
| Learning Objective #2: describe the perspective of patient autonomy in the context of end-of-life care in Taiwanese adults |
Many clinicians in Taiwan report that death is taboo in Taiwanese culture and many families insist that the health care providers to hide negative prognoses from patients. Because it is assumed that the patients will benefit from these white lies, the clients are not given the opportunity to exercise their autonomy. Very few studies, however, have been conducted on patient autonomy and end-of-life care preference. This pilot study used a cross-sectional design to examine the attitude of 65 Taiwanese adults toward patient autonomy in the context of end-of-life care. The subjects, whose age ranged from 34 to 80, lived in the community and were in good health. Ninety-seven percent of the subjects did not know the content of the Hospice Act (similar to the Patient Self-Determination Act in the US) and 82% wanted to know. In terms of patient autonomy, 91% and 79% of the subjects believed that the patient should be informed of a terminal diagnosis and prognosis respectively. Fifty-six percent said that the patient should be the ones to decide whether to withdraw or withhold life-prolonging machines and artificial nutrition, while 26% said the family and 11% said health care providers should make this decision. Forty-five percent of the subjects believed that patients definitely have the right to terminate their lives when there is no chance of recovery, while 42% said maybe and 6% said that the patient had no such right. Eighty-eight percent of subjects believed that patients should decide on organ donation while 6% said the family. Fifty-five percent of subjects believed that patients should arrange their own funerals while 32% said the family. Taiwanese in this study do value patient autonomy and are willing to discuss issues related to death. Talk of death in the hospital, however, may be more difficult than in the community.
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